The present invention relates, in general, to electronics, and more particularly, to methods of forming semiconductors.
In the past, the semiconductor industry utilized various methods and equipment to singulate individual semiconductor die from a semiconductor wafer on which the die was manufactured. Typically, a technique called scribing or dicing was used to either partially or fully cut through the wafer with a diamond cutting wheel or a wafer saw along scribe grids that were formed on the wafer between the individual die. To allow for the alignment and the width of the cutting tool, each scribe grid usually had a large width, generally about one hundred fifty (150) microns, which consumed a large portion of the semiconductor wafer. Additionally, the time required to scribe all of the scribe grids on the entire semiconductor wafer could take over one hour. This time reduced the throughput and manufacturing capacity of a manufacturing area.
Another method of singulating individual semiconductor die used lasers to cut through the wafers along the scribe grids. However, laser scribing was difficult to control and also resulted in non-uniform separation. Laser scribing also required expensive laser equipment as well as protective equipment for the operators. Also, laser scribing is reported to decrease the strength of a die because the laser melts the crystalline structure along the edge of the die during singulation.
Accordingly, it is desirable to have a method of singulating die from a semiconductor wafer that increases the number of semiconductor die on the wafer, that provides more uniform singulation, that reduces the time to perform the singulation, and that has a narrower scribe line.
For simplicity and clarity of the illustration, elements in the figures are not necessarily to scale, and the same reference numbers in different figures denote the same elements. Additionally, descriptions and details of well-known steps and elements are omitted for simplicity of the description. For clarity of the drawings, doped regions of device structures are illustrated as having generally straight line edges and precise angular corners. However, those skilled in the art understand that due to the diffusion and activation of dopants the edges of doped regions generally may not be straight lines and the corners may not be precise angles. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the use of the word approximately or substantially means that a value of an element has a parameter that is expected to be very close to a stated value or position. However, as is well known in the art there are always minor variances that prevent the values or positions from being exactly as stated. It is well established in the art that variances of up to at least ten percent (10%) (and up to twenty percent (20%) for semiconductor doping concentrations) are reasonable variances from the ideal goal of exactly as described.